♪ good monday morning. a massive winter storm brings snow and ice as the northeast and mid-atlantic brace for nasty morning commute. i could deal with snow all day long, when it comes to freezing rain i don't want to touch it. >> meanwhile, snow games steal the show in the nfl. president obama and other world leaders make their way to south africa. plus, more dead pilot whales in florida. the man who snoozed and got trapped on a plane. and miley cyrus does the unthinkable to santa. very good morning to you. i'm veronica de la cruz. we begin with that massive weather system that's moving fast and wreaking havoc along the way. late sunday a 50-car pileup

turned deadly. we have more on the deep freeze. >> reporter: snow and ice bearing down in the northeast. part of a massive system affecting half the country. that same system sunday in wisconsin caused a deadly pileup in whiteout conditions and shut down the interstate. >> to the best of my knowledge there is probably in excess of seven semis and 30 plus vehicles. >> it was bad. like you could barely see the road. >> reporter: ice made driving nearly impossible in parts of kentucky. >> i could deal with snow all day long but when it comes to freezing rain i can't touch it. >> reporter: cancellations and delays of more than 3,000 flights. 500 in dallas along. snow and iso heavy it caused this roof to collapse. in some areas temperatures remain as much as 20 degrees below average. with thousands of customers still without power from the storm, there's concern tree limbs and lines weighted by ice

could cause new outages for several more days. in philadelphia fans braved close to a half foot of snow as the eagles took on the lyons. >> i'd rather be home in a glass of wine in my hand. >> reporter: in baltimore icy conditions with nearly zero visibility a wild weekend of weather. leanne gregg, nbc news. >> and bill karins joins us with more on this. >> it's been a rough start to winter. >> the cold alone. the heating bills and everything else that comes with it. heading out the ice scraper and rock saulth in the mid-atlantic area. secondary roads, bridges and overpasses, then this cold blast. these are all windchill warnings that cover the entire northern plains. so a week of extended cold in that area. as far as ice, the temperatures,

34 in d.c., baltimore, 32, 34 in new york. still below freezing around boston, providence and hartford where we have a coating of snow and freezing drizzle so there's still spots in the suburbs north and west of all the big cities on i-95. it's not a blockbuster snow or ice. a lot of schools probably have delays because temperatures will warm up and it's going to get better as we go throughout the next couple of hours. windchills. in negative numbers in salt lake city. fargo at minus 25 and it's heading for the great lakes and new england as we go throughout the mid-atlantic as we go throughout the middle of this week. again, be careful out there in areas. we've had snow in chicago, st. louis, indianapolis has freezing drizzle. just a lot of chrunchy stuff. not fun for vegas. you want it to be warm. >> cold for my mom today. we bid gosay good-bye to ne

mandela today. president obama will be among the tens of thousands attending the memorial. ron allen alive outside his former home in soweto. good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning. it's another very emotional day here. perhaps a day of preparation for the huge memorial service that will trach place at a soccer football stadium tomorrow that seats some 80,000 people but there will be tens of thousands bs perhaps hundreds of thousands of people trying to be near this place where nelson mandela will be honored and celebrated, his life and, of course, mourned for the loss. today a day of preparation, yesterday a day of reflection and remembrance at churches across the country. people are gathering to pay their respects and to reflect on his life and then as the week progresses after the memorial service tomorrow, mr. mandela's body will lie in state at the union building and on sunday next week, the state funeral, the official funeral in his

homeland homeland, very remote part of the country but where he wanted to be buried so, again, an emotional week, a long good-bye, a lot of mourning, but also a time to celebrate this life. >> ron allen for us, thank you. we move to washington where a budget deal finally sounds imminent, "the washington post" reporting the finishing touches under way with a sealed deal expected on capitol hill. the first successful budget, of course, since 2011 but it amounts to little more than a cease-fire according to "the post" because the deal would not significantly reduce the $17.3 trillion in debt. it wouldn't close corporate tax loopholes. it wouldn't fully replace sequester cuts. in essence it appears it would just avoid another debt crisis on capitol hill. a rare trip to pakistan for chuck hagel. it is the first trip there for a

pentagon chief in three years. his meetings with pakistan's prime minister over tensions with drone strikes and hopes to repair the relationship. he made a surprise visit to troops over the weekend and told them a possible budget deal could restore money to the military but notably he did not meet with president hamid karzai who ruffled feathers by refusing to sign a security deal. a pod of wayward whales has risen. officials found 11 dead pilot whales in the florida keys sunday afternoon bringing the number of recovered character casts carcasses to 52. officials do not know the status of the remaining whales. okay, a bizarre plane incident left one passenger with quite the surprise. tom wagner was on united flight from louisiana to california when he awoke to find the flight

empty and the plane locked. >> i looked up at the ceiling and i saw the lights were out, looked down the aisle an nobody was home. >> you can hear more of wagner's interview this morning coming up on the "today" show. sports from richard lui. good morning. >> good morning. all right. waking up, that might have been tough, right? >> lights were out. nobody home. >> call the girlfriend, let me out. >> somebody come get me. >> exactly. good day. the streak is over. the saints end the eight wins in a row and drew brees leading them to a win at home. brees now the fifth to surpass 50,000 passing yards and the fastest to do it. the patriots come from behind again in the game yesterday. a last-minute controversial call sets up tom brady for a touchdown with seconds left.

they try a field goal an patriots win 27-26. but lose also rob gronkowski to a possible acl tear there and now to the longest field goal in nfl history, count the yards there. the titans and broncos game. matt prater with a 64-yarder and the broncos flounce 58-28 and three of the longest ever field goals have been kicked in denver. you wouldn't know it by all the field goals but the 49 ergs ground game ruled on sunday. the seahawks get their second loss this season. the niners had their second to the last game at candlestick and win it 19-17. frozen football as you can tell. the snow cost adrian peterson a foot sprain. later with ten seconds left joe flacco connects, ravens, 29-26. the miami dolphins freezing out

the steelers in pittsburgh. and lyons and eagles wh, wh are they doing out there? no field goal attempts in the entire game. why? ask megaton calvin johnson who face plants in the snow. i was having fun. eagles win, 34-20. s.e.c. championship, auburn beating missouri in a scoring bonanza, 59-42. the most points ever for the title game. auburn is now second in bcs land and play florida state. auburn can thank michigan state for that opportunity, by the way, state handing undefeated ohio state their first loss in 25 game, 34-24 with osu out, auburn is now in. how do michigan state fans celebrate? going to the rose bowl. hey? we'll just burn anything in lancing. police made multiple arrests. you can imagine. fans for kobe bryant were

for civilized. a standing ovation for his first game in eight months. it showed. 9 points, 8 turnovers in 28 minutes of play, toronto's terrence ross was not rusty with this halftime buzzer beater. he hit that and raptors win it 106-90. it was such a great sunday for football. 90 touchdowns in just that one -- >> 90 touchdowns. and the perfect weather to be at home watching >> that's the amazing part. >> seriously. coming up next fans say a final good-bye to actor paul walker and melee over a soccer match. we'll tell you what sparked it when "first look" continues. [ woman 1 ] why do i cook?

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good morning, welcome back. house of fans of paul walker gathered in santa clarita, california, to pay tribute to him at the site where he and a friend died in a crash november 30th. another protest in the ukraine. hundreds of thousands

demonstrated against the government's abandoning a packet with the european union and moving close story russia. the protesters toppled a statue of lenin. in bangkok, thailand, protesters marched through the capit capital. the prime minister will call early elections in an attempt to resolve the crisis. in brazil, a soccer match was delayed for more than an hour when the fans fought each other. police used rubber bullets and tear gas. there were no deaths reported. now for your first look at business, mary thompson. good morning. >> looking ahead to this morning's open on wall street, futures are higher as the markets are coming off friday's post jobs report rally. following positive economic data from china over the weekend. despite the rally the dow and the s&p snapped an eight-week win streak. us airways and american airline also close their nearly

$18 billion mirjser today kreeth the world's largest airline. on saturday ruth bader ginsburg deny add last-ditch attempt to block that deal. well, first, black friday, then cyber monday. today it's green monday. ebay coininged that term which marks one of the biggest online shopping days of the year. walmart.com will feature several of its black friday deals again today. veronica, back to you. >> tomorrow is giving tuesday. one of my favorite days. scrambled politics is up next. we'll tell you all about the trouble at the nea and potential thorn in mitch mcconnell's side. which is why he's investing in his heart health by eating kellogg's raisin bran®. mom make you eat that? i happen to like raisins. [ male announcer ] invest in your heart health with kellogg's raisin bran®. ♪ ♪ i wanna spread a little love this year ♪

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into the future. ♪ now your first look at scrambled politics. thousands of teachers plan to rally in 100 cities designed to be a show of force from new york to san francisco to, quote, reclaim the promise of public education, but an expose in politico shows the growing trouble of the unions around the country. they have lost 7% of its membership since 2009. another decline could plunge member rolls to below 3 million members. the senate has fewer than 179 working hours left in the year and on the docket is an extension of long-term unemployment benefits. senator rand paul is opposed because he says it would do a, quote, disservice to workers. kentucky's other senator

mitch mcconnell is warned of bumps. mcconnell's opposition to obama care could haunt him. kentucky is one state with one of the highest enrollments in the program. two reporters getting the go ahead into the world of hillary clinton. jonathan allen and amy parent will be given rare access to clinton insiders for a new book out titled "hrc and the rebirth of hillary clinton." former rnc chairman ed gillespie is considering a run to the senate and considering challenging mark warner next year. republicans have yet to land a top recruit to run against the popular democrat. president obama welcomed recipients of the 36th annual kennedy center honors for the white house. this year's recipients are carlos santana, herbie hancock and billy joel along with martina arroyo and shirley maclaine. that's going to do it for

your morning dish of scrambled politics. joining me from washington for our first look at politics is washington post reporter david nakamura. david, good morning. >> hi. >> let's start with joe biden and his trip to asia. i know you were a pool reporter on that so welcome home. >> thank you. good trip. >> what exactly was the vice president able to accomplish? >> well, i think there were two things that really were foremost for the obama administration. one there is a stirmish between china and japan over islands in the east china sea. a big problem for international security. joe biden met with both the prime minister of japan and the president of china and said he made clear to china he wanted them to sort of roll back an air defense zone that china established unilaterally and is threatening japanese and even american commercial aircraft that you have to announce before you enter that space that you have to announce to china you're doing so. it's caused a lot of turmoil and headaches and so the vice president really made that

clear. the other big thing in the trip was for the obama administration to make clear their so-called pivot to asia is still a viable priority for them, president obama had to cancel a trip to asia during the government shutdown so the strp was there to say we're still here and still will be strong in the region. >> i'm going to go ahead and change the topic quickly and on a personal note i wanted to ask you i heard that you got into a skirmish with reporters in japan. what happened. >> it was a little misunderstanding. i was the pool reporter meaning i was responsible to sending a report to all journalists in japan and u.s. so i was trying to see what was going on when the vice president met directly with prime minister abe in japan and was trying to get space on the riser. the japanese photographers did not like that and they took objection to that. i was trying to stand my ground there but got settled and everybody got a good shot of what was happening.

>> but you're okay, right? >> of course, i'm okay. these things kind of happen when you have a lot of bodies trying to see in a small space and that's what happened. you get a quick moment to see what's happening and i wanted to make sure i was able to see and i went up on this riser this. happens occasionally elsewhere but the japanese press -- i think part of it was that the japanese press was upset when they came to the oval office they had not gotten a good space and american reporters blocked them out so a little retaliation i wasn't ready for but the international incident was worked out. >> so competitive. good. want to ask you one more question. what's going on in washington, the house and senate back in session. we just mentioned unemployment being one of the key issues to tacking before the end of the year. what else is on the docket? what's the likelihood really that anything is going to get done? >> before the end of the year i think the biggest thing is the budget. there is a good sign that paul rand is coming to an agreement and can strike a modest deal to

keep the government open. the other thing is a farm bill. less optimism it can go through because of fight over food stamps. some are saying they'll get a smaller bill done that will address milk subsidies but these are the big issues. immigration does not look likely. >> 179 hours left. nice to see you. thanks. coming up bill karins and richard lui will join us for "first buzz" a b.a.s.e. jumper's brush with death. also miley cyrus brings remember wrecking ball to the jingle ball. we'll tell you all about it next. and compare costs. it doesn't usually work that way with health care. but with unitedhealthcare, i get information on quality rated doctors, treatment options and estimates for how much i'll pay. that helps me, and my guys, make better decisions. i don't like guesses with my business, and definitely not with our health. innovations that work for you. that's health in numbers.

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miley cyrus may not have

received any grammy nods this year but she is getting the last laugh as she was able to ruin christmas for just about everyone at friday's jingle ball concert in los angeles. she did this on stage. yep. she twerked -- >> that's my girl. >> twerked on santa holding a bottle of booze. what is she doing? i guess this is her way of saying merry christmas. i'm at a loss at this point. >> i wonder if she'll have a clothing line. what will -- >> a clothing line? >> you know what i'm saying. >> i know what you're saying. time for "first buzz" talking about "snl." paul rudd was on this weekend. he was hilarious. >> one direction. also, watch this. >> who's your favorite? >> i like nile because he has blond hair. >> that's funny because nile is a natural brunette. he dyes his air. ♪ oh you don't know your basic facts ♪ ♪ no no

>> okay. you have to break it down. >> one direction playing on "saturday night live" and he was an adult fang in line with the young girls there and he was trying to outfan them and it was hilarious. third time hosting, always fun stuff. >> they have tickets on sale. eight hours straight trying to call and get the tickets. >> did they really? >> when you were a teen girl, what was your crush on? >> i don't know. >> you don't remember. >> you didn't wait in line. >> i was too busy ice skating. i wasn't into any of that -- >> people were waiting in line to sigh. >> not really. bill? >> put down -- >> lighten the mood. >> put down the cereal because they just found this thing in new york city. it's a new species of cockroach and what is different about this cockroach. it's from asia and found it out in the streets. it can survive the cold. it is not like -- it doesn't need to be underground in the winter. it can be crawling up on the

snow bank. >> those things don't die anyways so it makes sense. >> just -- the fact that they have a new -- they don't know if it'll invade the other ones. >> no more. oh, goodness. i'm veronica de la cruz. this is "first look" on msnbc. stay tuned because "way too early" starts right now. do i love one direction? i don't know. is liam's favorite color purple? ♪ you don't know you're beautiful ♪ >> i say harry you say stiles. i say one you say direction. harry. >> all: stiles. >> harry. >> all: stiles. >> slow in will ferrell and a sing-off and your daily dose of "anchorman" promotion. tweet us if you're suffering from ron burgundy fatigue. up to speed from the weather

map. guys stuck in the field reporting on this. in the ukraine an iconic statue taken down as a classic east versus west tension sends a nation into a protest frenzy. this is "way too early." ♪ >> good morning, everybody. brian shactman. it is a monday, december the 9th. it was an absolutely nutty day in the nfl. really within an hour period i saw one of the most incredible plays i've ever seen. snow bowls, another tom brady comeback and highlights from last night's blow-out but begin with millions of americans waking up to a pretty messy situation. overnight snowfall turned into sleet and freezing rain and that's going to make that morning commute for many in the northeast pretty tricky. over the weekend a large part of the midwest blanketed with snow. we had record low temperatures hit most of the nation.